The Dreaded Deadhead

There are objects floating in the water, other than our beloved boats and us. Some are interesting, some are trash, and some are dangerous!

While cruising along the ICW or Inland Rivers, you’ll discover thousands of miles of beautiful rivers, creeks, and streams that flow into these lovely waterways. These charming paths are often bordered by trees, docks, commercial yards, and cozy homes, all contributing to the waters’ insatiable thirst for delightful treasures. You might spot everything from small sticks and logs to barrels and docks. After a flood or hurricane, it’s not uncommon to encounter a fascinating variety of objects like boats, cars, and houses that have been swept into our cruising waters, making each journey a unique adventure!

Spending time on the water can reveal all sorts of interesting sights! Take, for instance, that lone shoe gently bobbing along—it’s hard not to wonder how someone ends up losing just one. I still haven’t stumbled upon its matching pair!

There are life jackets, usually without the person attached, that blow overboard. Sometimes, an oar or paddle floats past after being left in the dinghy being towed behind the sailboat. I’ve even seen a bottle of scotch floating past, apparently unopened! I guess someone was trying to avoid a BWI!

It’s surprising how much garbage finds its way into our beautiful waterways! Items like tires, dock floats, buoys, fenders, and even hats can all end up there. Whenever it’s safe for me to do so, I make it a point to retrieve that litter and properly dispose of it on land.

Many items we encounter pose minimal risk to our boats. However, one natural floating object can be quite a sneaky danger: “the Deadhead.” The deadhead can easily go unnoticed and often presents a severe risk. More than just a few hulls, propellers, and running-gear components have unfortunately fallen victim to the pesky deadhead.

A “Deadhead” refers to a log or large tree submerged in a waterway, just under the surface and hard to see. However, deadheads can also be other objects. For instance, we encountered a deadhead in Baltimore Harbor—a large, railroad tie-sized piece of old dock submerged beneath the water. This incident cost us three days, a haul-out, and some propeller repairs. When a log, stump, or any wooden object enters the water, it starts a gradual process of soaking up water and sinking. These objects can float for months or years before they eventually sink. Once submerged, they may either drift below the surface or settle on the bottom, waiting for the prop wash from passing boats to bring them back up just in time for the next boat in line.

The danger of a deadhead arises during the shift from floating to resting on the bottom. Even at slow speeds, colliding with a deadhead can harm both the hull and the propeller. It may even puncture the hull at greater speeds or with a larger deadhead.

Deadheads are found anywhere there is navigable water. It’s pretty rare to see a deadhead in the open ocean, but they are out there. The open ocean presents other unique hazards like submerged buoys and even shipping containers. So, while the official definition of a deadhead typically involves some sort of “tree, log, or stump,” I consider a deadhead any floating debris large enough to damage my boat or running gear.

Often, deadheads collect other debris, like plants and trash, attempting to camouflage themselves while lying in wait for their prey. If you travel the major rivers on the Great Loop, such as the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee, it’s not a matter of if you will hit a deadhead but when. Like running aground, there are three types of boaters: those who will hit a deadhead, those who have hit a deadhead, and liars!

On our last Great Loop trip, we traveled with a small group of boats up the Hudson River, just south of Albany, NY. It had rained heavily in Vermont and upstate New York, causing all that debris to wash down the river. The best way I can describe it is as an obstacle course. Some trees were 3 feet in diameter and 10 to 20 feet long, pushed along by the current. Mixed in were smaller sticks (anything larger than about 3 inches can damage a propeller if hit), barrels, parts of docks, and even a refrigerator.

We heard a sailboat just ahead of us calling the Coast Guard on the radio to report “Debris In The Water.” we laughed at the time; there was so much debris that you’d be on the radio all day! Later, we learned that the debris they were reporting was a body. Oh My!

My Classification of Deadheads

• Floaters: Floaters are the easiest to spot. Like the logs on the photos above, you can see them coming from a long way off, and slow down and maneuver to avoid them.
• Bobbers: Bobbers are those that are mostly waterlogged. They sit at or just below the surface and will bob above the surface with the action of the waves. These can be much harder to spot. Both because they are not always above the surface, but the longer a deadhead has been in the water, the darker they become and blend into the background.
• Icebergs: These look like just a stick or branch sticking up out of the water, but that’s just the tip. Attached to that innocent-looking little stick is a full-sized sequoia lurking just below the surface.
• Submarines: There isn’t much you can do about submarines. These are deadheads that are fully submerged. Your best hope is that the boat in front of you causes it to surface for a moment so that you can see it. These also tend to be the most damaging. Deadheads on the surface will often be deflected by your hull as long as you don’t hit them too hard or fast. Submarines, on the other hand, tend to pass under the boat. Unless your keel protects your props, the propeller is the next thing the log will encounter. I pity those with IPS drives protruding from the bottom of the boat with the propellers facing forward. We’ve seen them torn off by logs in the rivers.
• Zombies: These are logs that have sunk to the bottom, happily buried in the mud. Usually, you can safely pass over them. However, another boat may sometimes pass over them, and the propeller wash can loosen them enough to start floating toward the surface. As the next boat in line, you’re likely to hit one. The big tow boats are especially skilled at raising old logs from the depths because their propeller wash can extend up to a mile behind them. When following or passing a tow, be particularly vigilant for these “zombie deadheads” so that they don’t pop up from their graves and bite you! Even your buddy boat can disturb long-buried debris in shallow water. We witnessed this in the Dismal Swamp Canal and on the Tennessee River.
• Lock Lurkers: This is a class of deadheads that’s bitten us more than once. Locks, especially those on the big rivers, are notorious for collecting sticks, logs, and branches. The debris will float downstream until it reaches a lock, then back up either on the adjacent dams or in front of the lock gates. When the gates open, they will be drawn into the lock chamber and stay there for several lock cycles. We’ve had lock doors open to reveal a minefield of logs floating in the lock. Fortunately, you are going slow and can usually push the surface debris out of the way, but beware that there are probably just as many below the water. Several locks, like the Melvin Price lock on the Mississippi in Alton, IL, have bubblers that push compressed air up at the lock entrance to keep debris from entering. (Note: It’s only partially effective.) Also, when locks open up the dams to adjust water levels, this can send a cascade of debris downriver without warning.

Playing Dodgem

While you can’t wholly avoid hitting a deadhead, you can certainly minimize the risk with some common sense tips, and if you do hit something, you can hopefully minimize the damage.

• If you can wait a day for the water to clear, that’s your best bet. Be sure to check under your swim platform to ensure that nothing is stuck before you back out of a slip.
• When anchored, check your anchor line and between boats if you are rafted up for debris that might have snuck in overnight. After some large logs got snagged on it, we had to get help to clear an anchor chain.
• While cruising, keep an eye on the water, adjusting your gaze according to the vessel’s speed. Look ahead sufficiently far to take evasive action when necessary.
• Consider placing a crewmember on the bow in low-visibility situations to scan the water.
• Stay informed about your cruising zones. Specific locations are more prone to nearby deadheads than others.
• If a deadhead is sighted, maintain your focus on it or delegate a crew member to monitor it, similar to handling a person-overboard incident.
• Slow down. Only go as fast as you are willing to hit something!
• Take evasive action promptly after the first sighting, and whenever possible, be generous with the course adjustment.
• If I am sure (or think) there will be contact with a deadhead, I put the engines into neutral. This approach lessens the impact force of the deadhead against the hull and significantly decreases the risk of damage to the propeller since it won’t be spinning.
• If you see something, say something. When traveling in areas with lots of floating debris, we will make a Sécurité call on the radio to warn them of the hazard if we know other boaters are in the area. When traveling in a group, we will select a secondary channel we all monitor. The first (sacrificial) boat will call out hazards, “Deadhead off my port.” “Log dead ahead.” “I heard a bump on my hull.” The following boats will pass the sighting along to those behind them.
• When following other boats, especially larger vessels, slow down and leave extra room between you and the vessel in front of you. If you pass, either meeting or overtaking, stay to the side of their wake for as long as possible. The water will be smoother, and you are less likely to hit something they’ve washed up.
• “Holding your breath and cringing helps.” If you see something at the last minute and have taken all of the evasive and damage reduction steps you can, I’ve found holding your breath, cringing, and saying some sort of prayer (or expletive) helps. It probably won’t change the inevitable, but at least you’ll have gotten your heart rate up in preparation for that heartbreaking “thump, thump, thump, bump.”

What To Do If You Hit

If you do hit something, the first thing to do is to bring your engines to neutral as quickly as possible to minimize damage. Debris can get caught on rudders and propeller shafts, so the quicker you can get your propellers to stop, the better. If possible, quickly look behind you to see if you can see what you hit floating behind you. This will both give you an indication of the size and damage-causing potential; also, if you see it, you can be pretty sure it’s not still stuck under the boat.

Once you are stabilized and your heart rate has returned to something like normal, evaluate for any damage. What you need to do will depend on what and how you’ve hit. If you hear a loud bang on the hull, you will want to check your bilge to see if you are taking on water. Unless it was a very hard hit, and you felt your boat shudder or suddenly jerk. The chances are pretty low that there has been a significant hull breach. If you do have a breach, make sure that you turn all of your bilge pumps on and get everyone into life jackets.

Next, check your rudders to make sure that nothing is stuck in them by turning your wheel all the way to port and then all the way back to starboard. If you feel resistance, you may have something stuck in them and not be able to steer your boat fully. If you are in a river with a current, you may want to drop your anchor quickly while you evaluate your options so that you don’t get carried into shallow water.

Next, put your engines back into gear at idle and listen for any obvious noise indicating that you have something stuck in your propeller. If you hear anything, immediately go back to neutral. Sometimes, putting the engines in reverse can loosen a stuck branch. Just be ready to go back into neutral quickly. If the engine stalls when you put it into gear, you’ve got something stuck hard, and I wouldn’t recommend trying to get it loose until you are safely tied to a dock.

If there is no indication of something stuck, slowly increase your throttle in small increments, feeling for any vibration. If you feel significant vibration, back down the RPM or go back to idle and neutral. You may find that vibration starts after a specific RPM. You can use this as your maximum speed if you have to limp to a repair facility. On twin-engine vessels, you may find that only one propeller was damaged, and you may be able to travel on a single engine. One trick I’ve found is that using your auto-pilot in heading hold mode and steering with the autopilot will help you compensate for the uneven thrust. My suggestion is to go out into open water someday and try this out before you need it. It takes a bit of practice. We lost a transmission once and traveled over 300 miles on a single-engine steering with our autopilot.

Don’t Let A Deadhead Ruin Your Day

Deadheads and debris in the water are a part of boating, like bad weather and mechanical problems. With some common sense, keeping your eyes open, and evaluating the risks, you can minimize the potential of hitting something and enjoy your day out on the water.

Have you ever hit a deadhead?

Let us know in the comments below!

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